Aspiring DJ Denver appeared on the iTunes chart after thousands of stolen credit cards were used to buy his music. Picture: AP Source: AP
AN obscure part-time DJ from Wolverhampton became as popular as Madonna after fraudsters downloaded his songs in a swindle on iTunes and Amazon, a court heard.
Denver White, 26, sold so many tracks he featured in the download sales charts after thousands of stolen credit cards were used to buy his music.
White - known as DJ Denver - and 11 others were allegedly involved in the scam which cost iTunes and Amazon up to $1.5 million in royalties.
Gang members used at least 24 laptops with sophisticated software designed to disguise their location and bought music with stolen credit card details.
They uploaded about 20 tracks produced by White and a number of other artists to fleece iTunes and Amazon between January 2008 and June 2009.
Jurors heard 11 others including "main man" Craig Anderson, 24, had admitted their involvement in the con.
Anderson and fellow fraudsters discovered they could upload songs via agents on to iTunes and Amazon.
"They got hold of literally thousands and thousands of compromised credit card details, both from America and the UK, and they used those cards to download their own music from iTunes and Amazon," prosecutor Helen Malcolm told London's Southwark Crown Court.
"Every time they downloaded their own music an amount of royalties was generated."
White was a part-time DJ in the Wolverhampton area and not a "big-time rockstar".
"Somebody at iTunes noticed that a complete unknown from Wolverhampton called DJ Denver . . . was selling so much on iTunes that his name featured in the volume sales charts," Malcolm said.
The jury was told that after the fraud was discovered royalty payments were stopped and White's music was removed from the site.
White denies the charge of conspiracy to defraud.
0 comments:
Post a Comment